UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 24

Sophie didn't have any time to share her revelation  because at that moment, someone behind her cried out, and Sophie whirled around to see Keefe stumbling backwards into the wall.  He looked unhurt, but his gaze was following somebody...

"Lady Gisela," Sophie said, as if that was the best insult she could come up with.

"Yes," Keefe's mom said simply, treating Adela's taunts as if they were schoolyard insults.  "My dear Adela, I see you have done brilliantly, as always."

Adela gave a little curtsy, but the menacing glare quickly returned to her features.  "I will give you one last chance to surrender, my pretty little Moonlark."

"I'm nobody's moonlark," Sophie spat.  "And certainly not yours."

Adela raised an eyebrow as if this genuinely surprised her.  "I supposed that you were my brother's.  After all, he did create you."

For a second, Sophie almost relented, almost gave in.  Why fight?  She had made a good point.  And did her friends really care about her?  After all, they had turned on her for doing nothing wrong....

Being a leader doesn't mean saving the world singlehandedly, Amy's voice echoed in her mind.  It just means standing up for what you think is right.

What was the right thing?

"No," Sophie repeated.

Adela and Lady Gisela gave sneers so similar and so cold that Sophie took yet another step back.

"So be it," Lady Gisela said, and Adela looked much too thrilled about a fight than Sophie preferred.

And then they both charged.

Even though Lady Gisela was only a Polygot, she had a slender physique and was exceptional at fighting people hand to hand despite her virtual innocence.  She unsurprisingly attacked Keefe first, sprinting up to him, and ducking down to sweep underneath his legs and trip him.  He dived over his mother and smacked her in the face with his palm.  She yelped and started wildly punching in return, and a few of her friends went over to assist him.

Meanwhile,  Adela disappeared.  Sophie had already suspected that she was a Vanisher, because she'd disappeared multiple times already.  The most deadly Vanisher Sophie had known of since then was Della, the Vacker's mom.  She had a terrible suspicion that Adela might be even more powerful than Della.

"It's Gethen!"  Wylie screamed, and Sophie felt her blood run cold.  Gethen could knock them all out if he wanted to....  She caught Linh, Dex, and Fitz charging towards him, Linh shooting a blast of water in his direction, and Dex tossing a bunch of gadgets at his head.  Even if the tech malfunctioned, Sophie had a feeling that the hard metal balls would hurt anyways.  Fitz tackled Gethen head on.

"What do you want?"  Sophie demanded.

"Oh no my little Moonlark,"  Adela scolded, wagging a finger at her as if she was just a stubborn preschooler.  "I'm not going to let you stall enough to build up that mental energy and do your little inflictor thing."  The tapped her head, maybe to signal about mental energy, or maybe just to explain to Sophie that she had more brains than Sophie did.

"I swear, I only want to know what you want," Sophie insisted, and was a bit surprised that she meant it.  "I want to know if there's a way to stop.... this."  She waved her hand in the general direction of all the shrieking and fighting and unsettling noises of water splashing in people's faces and thuds of well executed punches.

Adela seamed to sense this because she hesitated.  "We lured you here because we wanted to recruit you, as that might be obvious.  But now that you have refused, it is just a matter of protecting the Stellarlune."

"You brought it here, then?"

Adela gave a small laugh, but the noise sounded more wistful and longing then mocking.  "My dear, Stellarlune is not a substance.  It is not like water, or air, or shadows, or electricity.  No, you cannont hold it like you hold other elements.  It is the counterpart of shadowflux, and shadowflux is unlike the other elements too.  It is more of a feeling, an emotion.  A moment.  It is not something that is given."

"Why are you even telling me this?  You're part of the Neverseen.  It's supposed to be about secrets and evil, isn't it?"

Adela looked a bit sad for a moment.  "That... is not how I imagined this organization would grow into."  Her eyes turned periwinkle for just a minute, and then quickly returned to their own reddish brown color.  "That doesn't matter though.  You did wake up your friend by using stellarlune, correct?"

"Yes," Sophie admitted.

"It was a feeling.  Not a substance.  Just like how your echoes are emotions instead of shadows.  Just like how a normal Shade cannot control shadowflux.  And how a normal Flasher cannot control Stellarlune."

"How does Gethen knock us out only using light?"  Sophie tried to use a different tactic.  She still had no idea why Adela was so revealing.  Or why she looked so hesitant and off-balance just a moment ago.  Or even why her eyes changed colors.

"Have you not figured it out yet?  Gethen cannot do that with normal light.  He uses Stellarlune."

"But then how does he control it?  You would need a Flasher to do that.  A talented one, as you just told me."

Adela grinned.  Sophie shrank back, feeling as if she was shortening by inches.

Because emerging grimly from the doorway was a Flasher that Sophie had never even thought to question.

Glimmer.